Cured [ManxMan]

Epilogue

I jolted awake, panting as the last images from my nightmare faded.

I rarely remembered the details anymore, but always woke with an ache in my stomach, a hunger that was never quite satisfied, certainly not helped by the fact that eating still made me a bit queasy three years since I was fully cured of the virus. My eyes closed as I fought to steady my breathing, but that just invited in the images of the destroyed city, of fighting the other zombies over scraps, so I forced them open.

It was early morning, the gray dawn light just enough to illuminate Mattie next to me, his head on my shoulder and one arm thrown across my torso, one of his legs tangled with mine. I'd gotten a lot better at calming myself when the nightmares came, and was happy to see I hadn't disturbed him. He still had enough trouble sleeping without adding my problems to it.

Usually I would try to go back to sleep, or take the extra time to watch my boyfriend sleep peacefully next to me, savor the feeling of having him so close to me, of breathing his scent and not having the urge to, well, eat him.

Except this wasn't our bedroom in the apartment we'd shared since college, with our framed pictures decorating the walls and clothes tossed haphazardly around the room. This room was neat and orderly, very sparsely decorated, but I still recognized it as the room Mattie had occupied for the three years between when I received the first cure and when I got the second one.

Mattie still wouldn't speak of the first few months after I had to leave, much like he wouldn't speak of the years directly following my infection, but Kiara had told me she forced him to move in with her and Ajay because she couldn't stand the thought of him locking himself away like he did after I 'died'. We moved back into our old apartment after I was finally cured though, and only came back for special occasions.

Which meant I couldn't let Mattie sleep knowing what was imminent, so I shook him a little, to which his only response was to tighten his hold and press his face against the crook of my neck. "Mattie, it's time to get up."

He murmured something in response, and between his slurring and the words muffling against my skin, I barely made out something about not wanting to, so I shook him again, a bit more insistently.

"Mattie we really need to get up," I tried to reason.

"Too early," he insisted, which would be true on any other day, but I could already hear the tiny feet on the stairs moving our way and knew not everyone thought it was too early.

"Brace yourself," I muttered. Mattie hummed confusedly, still mostly asleep until the door was thrown open and then there were two tiny humans on the bed, jumping over us and yelling over each other. It was difficult to make out their toddler-speak, but the meaning was pretty clear and only reiterated what I'd been saying already: it was time to get up.

Mattie finally sat up, sputtering, and I could only laugh at his expression. "I did try to warn you," I said. He narrowed his eyes at me before turning back to the children, tickling the oldest, Kallie, into submission, her giggles spreading to her brother, Nikhil.

"Alright, we're up," he said, relenting his attack. "Go bother your parents, we'll be down in a minute." The kids hurried to obey, and Mattie called after them, "And don't wake Ollie!" From their giggles as they left, I felt pretty confident they were not going to heed his warning, and sighed, but it did little to affect my smile, and a glance at Mattie showed he was still grinning as well.

Mattie stood and pulled me upright with him, neither bothering to change out of our pajamas before heading downstairs. I still had a bit of trouble navigating the stairs, having to go one at a time because I couldn't step down on my bad leg, but Mattie waited patiently with me, letting me hold his elbow with the hand that wasn't clutching the railing, using both to keep me steady.